For over 200 years cotton has been a major cash crop in the southern United States. While cotton is not nearly as ubiquitous in the southeastern United States as it was in the days of the great cotton plantations with a slave-based agricultural economy, it is still a major cash crop. Cotton became a major cash crop in the late part of the 18th century after the invention of the cotton gin which allowed mechanization of the processing of ginning cotton to separate the seeds from the cotton fibers. However, to date cotton has resisted mechanization of the process of picking the bolls. For the same 200 years, the cotton burr, normally left on the stalk and branches of the plant, has been considered trash.
As is well known to those familiar with cotton, the bloom of the cotton plant consists of the cotton burr which are the petals of the flower and the fibrous cotton boll containing the strands of cotton and seeds which grows within the burr. As the plant matures in the field, the burr opens and the petals spread leaving the mature cotton boll ready for picking.
The extent to which the burr opens, and the extent to which the fibers of the cotton boll develop depend on the weather conditions of the growing season, mostly average daytime temperatures and the amount of water the plant receives during the process of maturation of the bloom.
The petals of the cottom burr are called locks, and naturally occur with either four or five locks to the burr. The burr is attached by a short stem to the stalk or a branch of the cotton plant.
Heretofore, cottom burrs were, with very few exceptions, considered trash. It is well known to cotton farmers that it is important to plow under the remaining cotton plants, including stalk, stems and burrs, shortly after harvesting of the cotton fibers. This is because leaving the pulpy plant standing in the field after harvesting is known to exacerbate the population of boll weevils in the next subsequent growing season.
Mature cotton burrs are made of a dry wood-like fibrous material and contain an oil which is similar to cottonseed oil which prevents the burrs from being excessively brittle.
In a word, raw cotton burrs are generally considered ugly. The inventors of the present invention have only encountered two preexisting decorative uses of cotton burrs. First, one of the inventors of the present invention has observed raw cotton burrs attached to a holiday wreath, along with other materials to provide a somewhat "rustic" looking holiday wreath. A pluarlity of burrs were glued directly to a preexisting wreath, together with other materials such as acorns.
Secondly, one of the inventors has observed a figurine representing a Christmas angel constructed from a pair of raw cotton burrs which still included the boll of cotton fiber within the burr. Both of these were somewhat underdeveloped cotton blooms in that the burrs had not opened completely and still formed a cup-like structure in which the boll resided.